Killjoy, or conscience of a generation? Charley cat scuppers a playdate, but earns a fishy picnic through doing the right thing

We all wanted a cat like Charley. Someone to play with, someone to look out for us, and someone to spray us with bits of raw fish while delivering garbled safety messages. It's difficult to pinpoint exactly what burnt this series into the memory of a generation, leading to its crowning as the 'nation's favourite' public information film on the 60th anniversary of the Central Office of Information - though it may have had something to do with this film's plundering for The Prodigy's 1991 rave hit 'Charley Says'.